Khatami's Last Stand; The reformist president, facing a major political defeat, is now more a figurehead than a catalyst for change.(Mohammed Khatami)

Byline: Babak Dehghanpisheh

Tens of thousands of people gathered around the Azadi monument in central Tehran last week to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the revolution. A hush fell over the crowd when President Mohammed Khatami, decked out in a black turban and robe, took the stage. He reflected on the Islamic Republic's "cultural, economic and military" achievements before taking a rhetorical detour and jabbing those who "blatantly oppose freedom and democracy in the name of religion." The crowd was silent. The only counter to this approach, he insisted, is the path of reform. "For the prosperity of the nation, I don't know any other path," Khatami said, his voice cracking with emotion. "Whether I succeed or not." No cheers, no whistles.

This is a melancholy moment for Iran's president. Lauded as a reformist hero after his overwhelming electoral victories in 1997 and 2001, Khatami nowadays is a forlorn and increasingly inconsequential figure. Hard-line opponents have blocked his ideas at every turn--and now, after the ruling clerics on the Guardian Council disqualified hundreds of reform candidates (among them the president's brother Mohammed Reza Khatami), conservatives seem poised to take control of the Iranian Parliament in this week's elections. Worst of all, many Iranians say Khatami is the reason the reform movement has stalled. If the hard-liners are able to sweep the elections, which the two major reform parties are boycotting, Khatami and his reformist colleagues face an uncertain future. "If the hard-liners win, there will be a crackdown on reformists," says Hamid Reza Jalaipour, a political analyst. "Some may be arrested, and others may organize themselves as an opposition group."

Things weren't always so grim. In the late 1990s Khatami achieved some success in his fight against Iran's dogmatic restrictions. He pushed through key reforms that, among other things, prevented security forces from intruding into people's homes. And he tried to end Iran's status as an international pariah. But in recent years, say critics, the president has lost the initiative and squandered his support by refusing to confront hard-liners. When he has, by threatening to quit on more than one occasion, he hasn't followed through. "Khatami has been at a crossroads for a long time," says Rasul Montajabnia, a candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections who acted as the president's adviser and has known him for more than two decades. "He is not the type of person who would make a decision that would threaten ...